A LATIN-IRISH TEXT ON FASTING IN THE LEABHAR BREAC

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A LATIN-IRISH TEXT ON FASTING IN THE LEABHAR BREAC

The purpose of this paper is to provide an edition of a Latin-Irish text on fasting entitled Cetain in Braith and to examine its structure and sources. 1. Manuscript context and title Cetain in Braith (CIB) ‘Wednesday of the betrayal’ or ‘Spy Wednesday’ is found on ff 44al-45a6 of the early fifteenth-century manuscript RIA MS 23 P 16 (1230), known as the Leabhar Breac ( LB ; Mulchrone and FitzPatrick 1943, 3379-403). The bilingual exordium (f. 44al-20) has been published by Atkinson ( PH pp 171-2), who refers the reader to an appendix for the remainder of the text, which is almost entirely in Latin. No appendix to Atkinson’s edition was forthcoming, however, and the text remained unpublished. CIB is a bilingual text on fasting based on Matt. 6.16-18, the section of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus warns against hypocritical, public displays of fasting. It immediately strikes one as odd that a text bearing the title Cetain in Braith should be based on this section of the gospel of Matthew rather than on the section recounting Judas’s betrayal of Christ (Matt. 26). The gospel text on which CIB is based is an appropriate one for a sermon on Ash Wednesday ( Cetain in Luaithrid), rather than Spy Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the start of a forty-day period of fasting which parallels Jesus’s forty-day fast and temptation in the desert, and it is significant in this regard that CIB is followed in the manuscript by a bilingual homily on that very topic, De Ieiunio Domini in Deserto (PH И 4705-5027 (Irish), pp 425-30 (Latin)). How, then, can we account for the choice of title Cetain in Braith ? The answer may lie in the manuscript context. Our text is preceded in the manuscript by a homily on Palm Sunday (Dom nach na himrime), while De Ieiunio Domini in Deserto is followed by a homily on the Lord’s Supper (In Cena Domini ). The proximity of these two homilies relating to two days within Holy Week (Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday) may have led to the text being associated with Spy Wednesday, * I am grateful to the editors of Eriu for reading a draft of this article and making many corrections and suggestions. I alone am responsible for any remaining errors. This research was undertaken as part of a project in the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, to produce a diplomatic edition of the Leabhar Breac in digital and printed format. DOI: 10.3318/ERIU.2010.60.37 Eriu LX (2010) 37-80 © Royal Irish Academy This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:23:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 38 ROisiN Mclaughlin the Wednesday of Holy Week. Alternatively, of course, the names Cetain in Braith and Cetain in Luaithrid may simply have been confused by a scribe. This raises the question as to whether the scribe of LB was responsible for assigning the title or whether it was already present in an exemplar which he copied faithfully because of the religious nature of the material.1 Richard Sharpe has observed that ‘patristic and medieval texts did not necessarily have authorial titles’ and that this ‘leads to much inconsequential fluidity in the form in which a work is referred to, but it is a fluidity that can create confusion…’ (2003, 22). Although the position of the title on the top left-hand margin might at first suggest that it is a later addition, an examination of the entire manuscript indicates that this merely reflects scribal practice. The titles of seven other texts beginning on the first line of column A (ff 1, 56, 107, 145, 160, 261 and 263) occupy similar positions, sometimes within rubricated boxes. We cannot say for certain, then, who was responsible for assigning the title Cetain in Braith. It has clearly led to some confusion as to the text’s content and liturgical context. In his description of the contents of the manuscript, Atkinson (PH p. 37) describes it as ‘Judas’s betrayal’, although in the table of contents (PH p. v) he describes it correctly as ‘on Fasting’. In the introduction to the LB facsimile (p. 2), it is described as a ‘Discourse for the Wednesday preceding Good Friday’. Stokes (1873-75,381) describes it as ‘On the betrayal of Judas’, while Tristram (1985, 144), states that it is a homily for Spy Wednesday (karmittwoch). McNamara (2000, 443, 455) also describes it as a homily on ‘Spy Wednesday (Judas’s betrayal)’. Mac Donncha (1972, 272;2 1976, 60) classifies CIB along with the homilies Domnach na hlmrime (PH И 4368-684 (Irish), pp 419-25 (Latin)) and De Die Pentecostes (PH 11 5365-633 (Irish), pp 436-42 (Latin))3 as homilies to be read on specific days (de tempore ). As will be seen below, however, CIB belongs more properly with the homilies on almsgiving and praying, which Mac Donncha classifies (1972, 272) as sermons relating to virtues (de virtutibus).

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